


End of the Line

by uminoko



Category: The Avengers - All Fandoms
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-06
Updated: 2012-08-06
Packaged: 2017-11-11 14:25:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/479482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/uminoko/pseuds/uminoko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Natasha watches over Clint while he is in the hospital. [6/1/14 edit: In retrospect, choosing this title a year before CA:TWS was strangely prophetic]</p>
            </blockquote>





	End of the Line

_When they come of age, they fix them like cats. Children are a liability for Black Widows._

Natasha remembers when the idea used to evoke anger in her, maybe fifty years ago or so. She approves of it now. People like her should not have children, she thinks, without resentment or guilt, simply acknowledging the fact. She is an assassin and a spy—what else belongs in her web but flies?

Somewhere beyond the walls of this room, she knows, the night is retreating. Here, the light is fluorescent and antiseptic, and pulses slightly in tandem with the _beep beep beep_ of the machines that Clint is hooked up to. He’d probably be able to see the light fluctuation. Natasha can just feel it in her skin.

She hates hospitals. She doesn’t remember _why_ anymore. _Yes you do_ \--no, she dismisses the thought smoothly, as though it was an opponent coming in for a swing. The mind tumbles and rests on the unconscious man by her side. _It’s funny, в конце-концов,* what is this, a vigil?_ Natasha sneers softly, and supposes it is fitting, after Delhi. And that other place Clint keeps mentioning. How can he keep track of all of those cities? She doesn’t even remember more than half of them. He probably makes them up.

With a fond smile, Natasha notes that there are about eighteen—nineteen—ways to kill Clint right now. She thinks of Matt, of…Logan?...whatever he calls himself right now. And Stark. She’s really only attached to people she can kill.

The beeping continues. The sun blazes red in the impartial skies, and Clint sleeps through another night.

 

*trans. from Russian: after all, literally: “in the end of ends.”


End file.
